Doctor Who: "The Lodger" Review

Gavin and Spacey.

Faced with a house containing James Corden and some kind of murderous shape-shifting extraterrestrial, we weren't entirely sure which we'd find most terrifying in this week's Doctor Who. As it turns out, neither - in "The Lodger", Corden reminded us how he got himself on the celebrity map in the first with a sweetly sincere performance as lovelorn Craig Owens, while the initially more enticing alien premise ended up little more than a curious fizzle.

Based on writer Gareth Roberts' 2007 comic strip of the same name, this week's Doctor Who saw the TARDIS go haywire as the Timelord touched down in modern-day Colchester, leaving the Doctor stranded on Earth as Amy ricocheted around time and space thanks to some alien interference. With nowhere to go, the Doctor attempted to pass himself off as human as the lodger in a flat which just so happened to be home of some malevolent extraterrestrial force, luring humans off the street and up the stairs to their doom.

As far as plot goes, that's about it, "The Lodger" proving to be one of the fluffier episodes of Season 5. It might have been short on drama and Amy Pond but it was still a surprisingly enjoyable little duck-out-of-water adventure that played up the Eleventh Doctor's peculiarly alien qualities brilliantly. It's been one of the most interesting aspects of Matt Smith's character this series, offering a refreshing contrast to David Tennant's almost too-human Timelord but 'The Lodger' let Smith rip with often witty, occasionally silly scenarios that played up this Doctor's most alien traits to great comic effect.

In sharp contrast to last week's 'Vincent and the Doctor', which largely limited Smith to visual slapstick, 'The Lodger' left the laughs to the script. Thrust into a series of very human situations - from flat sharing to football - Smith was an absolute joy to watch, even if he did spend an usual amount of time with his clothes off. With such a light tone to the piece and familiar faces in the form of James Corden and Daisy Haggard - both acquitting themselves admirably - this was just about the closest thing we're ever likely to get to a Doctor Who sitcom, even with seeping brown ceiling-ooze and an evil force upstairs.

For the most part, "The Lodger" flew along at a briskly enjoyable pace, stuffed full of memorable, if occasionally goofy set-pieces. Where things faltered though was in the more traditional Who elements - some lax direction left the alien threat devoid of almost all tension, despite a desperate abundance of strobes, and Amy's occasional onboard TARDIS appearances just never quite gelled with the rest of the story, though Karen Gillan proving as watchable as ever.

Worst of all though was an ending that harked back to the early days of the show's revival when episodes almost always left so little time for the climatic resolution, the whole thing collapsed into an incomprehensible muddle. Which is a shame because the sudden revelation of the upstairs interior had our fanboy synapses screaming with excitement, only to be crushed by yet another near-nonsensical love-conquers-all denouement.

There was much to like about "The Lodger" and its domestic take on the Doctor, with some genuinely funny moments and a central conceit that delivered a welcome bit of feel-good fuzz. In terms of monster-of-the-week thrills though, it simply couldn't deliver the much needed atmosphere and the whole thing threatened to unravel as it reached its poorly-delivered, undercooked conclusion. Still, with (yet another) cliff hanger epilogue to round the episode off, things are in motion for this series' epic showdown. Now, let's see if Moffat can tie all these lose ends up satisfactorily.